"Nélson has a lot of potential and just as important, fits in with our group of experienced riders," said Johan Bruyneel, RadioShack team director. "That Nélson has talent is obvious when you look at his results of the last years."

Oliveira, a four-time Portuguese time trial champion, narrowly missed the podium in last month's U23 world championship time trial in Australia where he finished fourth, 3.95 seconds behind bronze medalist Marcel Kittel of Germany. In 2009, Oliveira earned a silver medal in the U23 time trial world championship won by Australia's Jack Bobridge.

The 21-year-old Portuguese rider made his professional debut in 2010 for Spain's Xacobeo Galicia team. At this season's European U23 championships held in Turkey, Oliveira earned a silver medal in the road race and a bronze medal in the time trial. He also finished 16th overall at the Tour de l'Avenir and 24th at the Presidential Tour of Turkey.

Oliveira is one of six new riders recently signed by the American ProTour squad, joining Ireland's Philip Deignan, Portugal's Manuel Antonio Cardoso, USA's Ben King, Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski and New Zealand's Jesse Sergent.

"We continue to work on the future of Team RadioShack," said Bruyneel. "Ivan Rovny and Jason McCartney both re-signed for another year and we are still exploring the cycling market."